The Everyday Marksman

How To Shoot from the Sitting Position

Jeff Cooper, in The Art of the Rifle, stated that the seated position is the most useful for hunters. Military shooters use it less because it’s neither as low as prone nor fast like squatting or kneeling.

The sitting position is moderate to high stability, depending on your body mechanics. You will get slightly lower than kneeling or squatting but stay above most brush and grass. Kyle Lamb, in Green Eyes Black Rifles, points out that sitting is also convenient because it can be held for a long time compared to some of the others.

Properly done with a sling, I’ve found that you get almost as much stability as you do in prone. In fact, some of my best groups came from the seated position. Let’s look a little closer.

An Introduction to Sniping 4th Generation

The Swiss recognized the same need as everyone else. They needed infantry capable of using precision rifle fire at range. But they didn’t have the time or budget to do it the same way as other military powers who stood up designated marksman programs. Instead, they developed a system that mixed a point blank zero with designated holdover points and controlled rapid fire instead of single shots. The called this concept Sniping 4th Generation, or S4G.

Using a Point Blank Zero for Practical Marksmanship

Most field shooters, from big game hunters to military members, do not have the luxury of time to check distance, adjust sights, and take a precisely aimed shot. In the real world, targets don’t want to be shot and they won’t expose themselves long enough for you to go through all those steps. So the challenge for the shooter is balancing accuracy requirements against available time.

The Point Blank Zero is one of the most important methods for doing this.